Rennes (AFP)

Small rallies were held Monday, mainly in Britain, to demand the release of the former anti-capitalist Italian Vincenzo Vecchi, arrested August 8 and imprisoned near Rennes, pending a judicial decision on its surrender Italy.

Mr Vecchi is to serve 11.5 years in prison following convictions handed down in 2007 and 2009 in Italy after the G8 counter-demonstration in Genoa in 2001.

"No prison, no extradition, free Vincenzo!", Could you read on banners in front of the town hall of Rochefort-en-Terre, a small village in Morbihan near which lived for eight years this house painter, where a hundred sympathizers and friends had gathered.

"When I see the mobilization that there is here and the way in which this mobilization flooded Brittany first and then France, I tell myself that I want to hope," says Laurence Petit, member of the committee support "Free Vincenzo", who had called for rallies.

According to two European arrest warrants issued by the Italian authorities - a simplified procedure different from extradition because of the exclusive responsibility of the judicial authority - Mr Vecchi must carry out 11 years and a half of prison after convictions handed down in 2007 and 2009.

In particular, he was convicted of "devastation and rampage" during the counter-demonstration of the Genoa G8 in 2001, during which a protester, Carlo Giulani, was killed by a rifleman. The defense, however, challenges the charges of "carrying weapons" and "explosive objects" mentioned in the arrest warrants.

Small gatherings were also held in Rennes, Lorient, Nantes or Paris. "He has nothing to do in prison," Judge Anne-Marie, who questions the temporality of his arrest, a few days of the G7 Biarritz. "Twelve years in prison is disproportionate, it is injustice," denounces Anne, consultant.

"The police in Genoa have never been prosecuted for the violence committed on the protesters.Judice is hard with all those who raise the head as with + yellow + vests," said Sandra, Rennes.

A hearing will be held Thursday at 9:00 in Rennes to consider a request for release in the forties. The investigating chamber will also decide on Friday morning on the admissibility of the request for further information from the Italian courts made by the Advocate General and the defense to verify that the rights of the defense have been respected and that the penalty is not prescribed.

© 2019 AFP